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At the heart of each story are questions.

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what matters and why. Good afternoon from the K-U-O-W newsroom. This is Seattle Now. I'm Gustavo

Sagrero with today's top stories. It's Monday, May 18th. We'll start with an update to a story we've been following.

A Bellevue Man has been charged for the killing of UW student Juniper Blessing. Casey Martin reports.

31-year-old Christopher Leahy is facing almost 29 years in prison for allegedly killing Blessing

close to campus last week. He's being charged with first-degree murder with a deadly weapon.

Blessing was a trans woman.

Seattle police say Leahy stabbed her to death in the laundry room of her apartment building.

A spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office said,

so far there's no evidence to pursue hate crime charges.

Leahy is in jail on a $10 million bail. He wasn't at Monday's hearing. Neither was an attorney representing him, though the judge

asked for the attorney twice. Shortly after today's indictment, Blessing's family released

a statement thanking police, prosecutors, and the Seattle community for their support. The case now moves to

arraignment on Thursday morning when Leahy will respond to the charges. Outside of the King

County Jail courthouse, I'm Casey Martin, KUOWW News. Seattle's LGBTQ Commission has asked the city to take

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